(WASHINGTON) — Not far from the San Pedro Bay Port Complex in Orange County, which sees 40% of the nation’s imports, Rep. Young Kim, R-Calif., has been witnessing supply chain issues in her district due in part due to bottlenecks in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
Now she and Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., are sending a bipartisan letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., calling for a bipartisan select committee to address the issue. The proposed committee would have an equal number of members from both sides of the aisle to address supply chain issues and the impacts on the economy, families and small businesses.
“Congress must come together in a bipartisan way to address this economic and national security crisis that threatens to undermine U.S. competitiveness abroad,” Kim said. “That is why I am proud to work with Rep. Sherrill and a bipartisan group of colleagues to call on House leadership to ensure Congress takes immediate steps to bring relief to our nation’s economy.”
The committee would investigate the root causes of the supply chain issues and how the crisis has affected various industries. The panel would aim to draft and submit a report to Congress with its recommendations.
“Addressing the current shortfalls throughout our supply chain is imperative to continuing our economic recovery from the pandemic and addressing the very real impacts of inflation facing families across the country,” Sherrill said.
Kim also wrote a letter to California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in January urging officials to include dockworkers and others as essential workers.
She commended President Joe Biden for opening ports in southern California for 24-hour operation in October but said the administration needs to do more.
“While I was encouraged by the announcement that the San Pedro Bay Port Complex will be open 24/7, the administration’s actions so far are not the be-all and end-all that will solve the long-term issues of our supply chain and help ease persistent — not ‘transitory’ — inflation in our economy. A piecemeal approach won’t help solve the supply chain crisis, and that is why I led a bipartisan letter to the administration calling for a whole-of-government response,” Kim said.
(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Education on Thursday urged districts to combat pandemic-fueled teacher shortages by offering them more money from the pot of federal COVID-relief aid, in a letter sent to schools nationwide.
Schools are facing dire staffing losses as droves of teachers leave their posts, exhausted by the stresses of the pandemic. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said federal money could be used to hire more substitute teachers and give permanent teachers much-needed time-off, or to offer teachers better salaries through hiring or retention bonuses.
“Let us be clear: [The American Rescue Plan] provides vital resources to hire additional educators and school staff and to improve compensation to recruit and retain educators and school staff,” Cardona wrote in the letter to educators, obtained exclusively by ABC News.
“School districts should act with urgency to keep schools open for in-person learning and ensure they do not waste this opportunity to make critical investments,” he said.
The American Rescue Plan, signed into law last March by President Joe Biden, provided over $122 billion to schools.
Cardona listed various ways schools could use this pot of money to improve the situation for teachers, custodians, bus drivers, school nurses and other educators, and cited schools that have already done so.
“The most common reason educators have cited for leaving school employment in the last year is stress, followed by insufficient pay,” Cardona wrote.
“Many school leaders are increasing wages by offering hiring and retention bonuses, working towards permanent salary increases, or providing premium pay that help educators receive the compensation they deserve and keep them in the profession, and we encourage others to continue to work towards increasing compensation,” he wrote.
Cardona cited reports of schools offering signing bonuses of up to $6,000 in California, and other financial incentives offered to new teachers in Oklahoma, North Carolina and New Jersey.
“Now, more than ever, supporting educator well-being is critical for retaining our current educators and staff,” Cardona wrote.
Still, some schools have noted that short-term pay increases aren’t enough to solve their staff shortages.
Some principals have found that there are simply not enough trained professionals in the pipeline for them to recruit, and it takes time for teachers or counselors to get certified. Others have found that the temporary pay increases from federal relief are unsustainable.
And other schools have reported that nearby districts have been able to poach teachers with higher salaries funded by federal aid, leaving schools in lower-income areas with less teachers.
On the other hand, the National Education Association, a powerful teachers’ union, has thrown its weight behind the policy of using federal aid to retain teachers, saying it’s been effective with educational support professionals, or ESPs, when paired with other solutions.
“ESP leaders have found that increasing pay and benefits is the top strategy,” the NEA said in a post on its website.
“But what also helps is providing flexibility for retirees to return to work while still receiving pension payments, revisiting licensure challenges, providing incentives, creating cross-state collaborations to make it easier to work in other states and localities, and looking at the well-being of current staff and ways to improve it to keep them on board,” the union wrote.
The NEA noted that the average salary of ESPs in 22 states is $30,000 or below, “which is not a livable wage or an attractive career proposition.”
Without addressing the educator shortages, schools are facing interruptions in all facets of the school day, from longer bus routes due to less bus drivers, larger class sizes or substitute teachers who aren’t qualified for the subjects they’re assigned to, and even school closures.
Schools in 11 states — Idaho, California, Colorado, Illinois, Missouri, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Tennessee, Vermont, and West Virginia — have had to close temporarily because of staffing shortages, according to an October report in Ed Week.
For his part, Cardona acknowledged that the short-term solutions were just the beginning, but called on schools to take advantage of what was available.
“[The Department of Education] strongly encourages you to use funding under ARP to respond to the urgent needs resulting from the pandemic while beginning to plan for the investments needed to ensure that every student has access to the qualified educators and staff they need,” Cardona wrote.
(LONDON) — Queen Elizabeth has canceled her annual pre-Christmas celebration for family for the second year in a row due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The 95-year-old monarch traditionally holds a lunch at Buckingham Palace before Christmas for extended members of the royal family, but has decided to cancel it again this year, a royal source told ABC News.
“The decision is a precautionary one as it is felt to put too many people’s Christmas arrangements at risk if it went ahead,” the royal source said. “While there is regret that it is cancelled, there is a belief it is the right thing to do for all concerned.”
Buckingham Palace has not yet confirmed where or with whom Queen Elizabeth will celebrate Christmas, her first without her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip, who died in April at the age of 99.
Last year, also amid the coronavirus pandemic, the royal family broke a decades-long tradition of spending Christmas at Sandringham, Queen Elizabeth’s estate in Norfolk.
The queen and Philip instead spent the Christmas holiday at Windsor Castle, their home outside London, where they had spent much of their time since March 2020, when the U.K. began its first stay-at-home orders.
In past years, Philip and Elizabeth oversaw the family’s multi-day Christmas celebration at Sandringham with their four children — Princes Charles, Andrew and Edward and Princess Anne — and their grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
The family traditionally holds their gift exchange on Christmas Eve, following the German tradition, where they often swap funny or homemade gifts.
On Christmas Day, they walk to St. Mary Magdalene Church for the Christmas service.
After the service, the royals enjoy a Christmas lunch at Sandringham and then gather to watch Queen Elizabeth II deliver her annual Christmas message.
In the evening, the royal family will get together again for a Christmas buffet dinner with 15 to 20 different delicacies prepared by the queen’s chef.
On the day after Christmas, known as Boxing Day in the U.K., the royals traditionally partake in a pheasant shoot on the grounds of Sandringham.
Some members of the royal family gathered Dec. 8 at Westminster Abbey for a Christmas carols service hosted by Duchess Kate.
Kate and Prince William were joined by William’s cousins Zara Tindall and Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.
William’s aunt, Sophie Wessex, also attended, as did members of Kate’s family, the Middletons.
(WASHINGTON) — When Sarah Hutchinson, mom of a 5-year-old son, saw her $300 child tax credit payment deposited into her bank account Wednesday, she said she felt a sense of both relief and fear.
Hutchinson said she was thankful for the payment, which, as a single mom, she uses to pay for her son’s child care, but she also knew it could be the last one she receives under the child tax credit expansion, which went into effect in July after Congress passed President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan in March.
The program is set to expire on Dec. 31, meaning the payments that Hutchinson and millions of other parents across the country received on Wednesday will be their last unless Congress votes to renew the program.
“I’m not looking forward to January,” said Hutchinson, 45, a librarian in Fredericksburg, Virginia, who is also facing more than $120,000 in student loans and thousands of dollars in medical bills accrued by her husband, who died in August. “I’m not sure how I’m going to work it out financially, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.”
Since July, around 35 million families each month have received the enhanced tax credit of up to $300 for each child under age 6 and up to $250 for each child ages 6 to 17, according to the Internal Revenue Service.
The families have primarily spent the money on kids’ school and child care expenses and essentials like food, rent, mortgage and utilities, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Losing that extra financial aid would put nearly 10 million children at risk of falling back into poverty, according to a recent analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a research and policy institute focused on reducing poverty.
That is the worry that keeps Torie Miesko, a single mom of two sons, up at night.
“I’m afraid,” said Miesko, 28, of Swissvale, Pennsylvania. “I’m trying to keep my sons out of poverty.”
Miesko works full time as an office administrator for a medical clinic while raising her two sons, ages 3 and 18 months. She said the $600 per month she has received since July helps her pay some of her rent and leftover bills and helps to cover her car insurance, which is necessary so that she can get to work.
“It has changed my life,” she said of the monthly child tax credit payments. “I have a little bit of a better job but still everything costs so much money and [the $600 monthly payment] is almost a whole other paycheck.”
Miesko shared her story with several U.S. senators this week in a Zoom call organized by MomsRising, an advocacy organization founded by moms.
The fate of extending the child tax credit expansion in 2022 lies with the Senate, which has yet to vote on the Build Back Better Act, legislation that passed the House of Representatives in November and includes a one-year extension of the monthly payments.
Miesko said she told senators she hopes the Senate stops “messing around” with the financial well-being of parents and passes the legislation.
“I really hope that they take it seriously and know that this really does impact everyday Americans greatly,” she said. “It’s sad how much regular Americans have to struggle and now they want to give [the monthly payments] for a couple of months and then take it back.”
Democratic leaders in Congress had hoped to pass the Build Back Better Act by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s self-imposed Christmas deadline, a timeline the White House said it supported. But that goal is slipping away, in large part due to the objections of Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.
The House-passed $1.75 trillion bill extends the monthly child tax credit for one year, through 2022, but Manchin has always said he objects to programs in the 10-year legislation that last for a shorter period of time, under the concern that those programs, like the enhanced child tax credit, could be made permanent and thereby more costly.
“Manchin has been clear that he wants the bill to stay at $1.75 trillion,” a source familiar with the matter told ABC News. “[Manchin] isn’t explicitly telling Biden to remove any specific policy, but he has made clear that expensive provisions are not going to fit to keep the bill at $1.75 trillion.”
A White House spokesperson said Wednesday they want the bill passed “as soon as possible.”
“It’s our longstanding rule not to discuss the specifics of private discussions with lawmakers, but the president and Sen. Manchin have had productive and friendly conversations,” deputy press secretary Andrew Bates told ABC News. “The president wants to pass Build Back Better as soon as possible so that it can cut the biggest costs families face, get more Americans into the workforce, reduce the deficit and fight inflation for the long haul.”
If lawmakers do not extend the program ahead of the Dec. 31 deadline, the advance child tax credit payment that parents have been receiving for the past six months would stop. At tax filing time, parents would still receive the remaining half of the credit they are eligible for that wasn’t paid out in advance, according to Erica York, an economist with Tax Foundation’s Center for Federal Tax Policy.
“If lawmakers don’t ever extend the expansion, the child tax credit for 2022 would revert to its current law levels, a maximum credit of $2,000 per child under age 17 that phases in with earned income for lower-income households and that is largely received at tax-filing time, rather than through advance payments from the IRS,” said York. “This could mean many parents would go from receiving a very large child tax credit, to a slimmed down version, or even zero.”
Family policy experts say the potential lost income would devastate many families at a time when inflation concerns are mounting and the coronavirus pandemic is still ongoing.
Losing the monthly child tax credit payments would also impact the families that need it most, including families of color and households led by mothers, according to Amber Wallin, deputy director of New Mexico Voices for Children, a research and advocacy organization focused on improving the lives of children in New Mexico, which has one of the country’s highest child poverty rates.
“Data shows these types of programs disproportionately benefit families that are headed by mothers, and that’s really important right now because the data also shows that mothers have really disproportionately been harmed by the economic impacts of the pandemic,” said Wallin. “Mothers more than fathers have lost wages, have decreased work hours and have exited the labor force since the pandemic began, especially mothers of young children.”
Calling programs like the child tax credit “crucial,” Wallin added, “It’s about more than just providing relief to families. It’s about providing targeted relief that gets exactly to the families that need it, and that’s what the child tax credit does.”
ABC News’ Trish Turner and Justin Gomez contributed to this report.
As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.3 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 802,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 61% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Dec 16, 8:04 am
Omicron will be dominant variant in US ‘very soon,’ Fauci says
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading expert on infectious diseases, warned Thursday that omicron will become the dominant variant of the novel coronavirus in the United States “very soon.”
“It has an extraordinary ability to transmit efficiently and spread,” Fauci, the chief medical advisor to U.S. President Joe Biden, told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in an interview on Good Morning America.
“It has what we call a doubling time of about three days and if you do the math on that, if you have just a couple of percentage of the isolates being omicron, very soon it’s going to be the dominant variant,” he explained. “We’ve seen that in South Africa, we’re seeing it in the U.K. and I’m absolutely certain that’s what we’re going to be seeing here relatively soon.”
Fauci, who is also the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, urged Americans to “absolutely” get vaccinated against COVID-19, if they haven’t already, and to also receive a booster shot when they become eligible.
“At this point, we don’t believe you need an omicron-specific boost,” he added. “We just need to get the boost with what you got originally for the primary vaccination.”
Dec 16, 6:14 am
France to ban non-essential travel with UK over omicron surge
France announced Thursday that it will ban non-essential travel to and from the United Kingdom due to the country’s surge in cases of the omicron variant.
Starting Saturday, France will require people to have “a compelling reason” to travel between the two countries. Travel for tourism or work will not be allowed. French citizens, however, can return to France, according to a statement from the French prime minister’s office.
All travelers from the U.K. will be required to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken less than 24 hours before departure. Upon arrival in France, they must self-isolate for a week, but that period can be ended after 48 hours if they test negative for COVID-19 again.
The new rules apply to people regardless of their vaccination status.
“Faced with the extremely rapid spread of the Omicron variant in the United Kingdom, the Government has chosen to reinstate the need for an essential reason for travel from and to the United Kingdom, and to strengthen the requirement for tests on departure and arrival,” the French prime minister’s office said in the statement Thursday. “The Government is also calling on travelers who had planned to visit the United Kingdom to postpone their trip.”
Dec 16, 4:24 am
Indonesia confirms 1st case of omicron variant
Indonesia announced Thursday its first confirmed case of the omicron variant.
The case was detected in a janitor who works at the COVID-19 Emergency Hospital of Kemayoran Athletes Village in Jakarta, according to a statement from Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin.
The hospital’s cleaning staff are routinely tested and the results for three people were positive for COVID-19 on Dec. 10. Those samples were then sent to a genome sequencing lab, which identified the omicron variant in one of the samples on Wednesday, according to the statement.
Indonesia’s Ministry of Health has also identified probable cases of omicron among five travelers who were in quarantine — two Indonesian citizens who had just returned from the United Kingdom and the United States, and three foreigners from China. Their test samples are being sequenced and the results will be known in a few days, according to the statement.
The health minister urged Indonesians “not to panic and to remain calm,” and to get vaccinated against COVID-19 if they haven’t already.
“The arrival of new variants from abroad, which we identified in quarantine, shows that our defense system against the arrival of new variants is quite good, we need to strengthen it,” Sadikin said. “So it’s normal to stay 10 days in quarantine. The goal is not to make it difficult for people who came, but to protect the people of Indonesia.”
Dec 15, 4:46 pm
Forecast: US could see up to 845,000 deaths by early January
Forecast models used by the CDC suggest weekly death totals and hospital admissions will rise over the next four weeks.
The U.S. could reach a total of 845,000 deaths by Jan. 8, according to the forecasts from the COVID-19 Forecast Hub at UMass Amherst.
The COVID-19 Forecast Hub team monitors and combines forecasting models from the nation’s top researchers. They then create an ensemble, usually with a wide cone of uncertainty. Nicholas Reich, a biostatistician who runs the forecasting model, told ABC News Wednesday that he doesn’t think the forecasts included omicron in their predictions because the majority of data isn’t publicly available yet in a format that can be easily incorporated into a model.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Dec 15, 4:20 pm
US cases up 45% in the last month
The U.S. is now reporting nearly 118,000 new cases each day — up by 45% in the last month, according to federal data.
Daily COVID-19-related hospital admissions have leapt by 46% in the last month.
Maine and New Hampshire are now averaging more new cases than at any other point in the pandemic, according to federal data.
New Hampshire currently holds the nation’s highest case rate, followed by Rhode Island, Maine, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
(NEW YORK) — The COVID-19 pandemic has shifted Americans’ perceptions of health care, and not for the better, according to a new survey.
Nearly half of Americans say the pandemic has worsened their perceptions of the U.S. health care system, with many describing it as “broken” or “expensive,” according to the West Health-Gallup survey released this week, the largest survey conducted on U.S. health care since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The high price of health care was a major factor, with a staggering one-third of Americans intentionally delaying or declining medical care over cost concerns.
In the midst of a pandemic, 14% of people with COVID-19 symptoms reported that they didn’t seek medical care because they worried they wouldn’t be able to afford it, a Gallup poll from April 2020 found.
In the new survey, nearly all sectors of society reported deep concerns about the health care system, including the insured and uninsured, wealthy and poor. The pandemic has also raised awareness of the unequal impact on Black, Hispanic and other non-white groups.
The survey found nearly three out of four Americans believe that their household pays too much for the quality of health care they receive, and an estimated 58 million U.S. adults find health care costs to be a major financial burden for their families.
One survey respondent, a white, Republican woman in her 60s, told researchers, “It’s hard when you have three or four kids and you’re trying to juggle the cost, and you’re deciding should I go to the emergency clinic or can we wait another day.”
Avoiding treatment due to rising costs is a problem facing both poorer and richer Americans. Around 34% of people with household incomes of less than $24,000 reported not seeking care in the prior three months due to cost. Twenty percent of people in high-income households (earning more than $120,000 annually) reported the same.
One in five U.S. adults reported they or a member of their household had a health problem worsen after postponing their medical care due to concerns about cost.
“Postponing care is only going to create higher costs in the long run,” said Dr. Blythe Adamson, founder of Infectious Economics LLC and affiliate professor at the University of Washington. “If we’re detecting cancer later on, that patient will have worse outcomes and more expensive care.”
The West Health-Gallup survey found that 60% of Americans reported the pandemic has made them more concerned about unequal access to quality health care services. Among Black Americans and Hispanic Americans, this concern was higher at three-fourths and two-thirds, respectively.
“We get brushed aside, African Americans, a lot of times,” said one survey respondent, a Black, Democrat woman in her 40s. “Things that we say, we feel it gets brushed off, they’re not really taking it seriously, like, oh, she’s just complaining again or it’s not serious, that kind of thing.”
Essential workers, who have lower income on average, continue to face greater COVID-19 risks than those with higher-income, more Zoom-friendly jobs.
“We continue to see low-income workers having high COVID-19 exposure at their job and not having insurance,” Adamson said. “These people are more likely to be hospitalized and thrown into bankruptcy.”
While some Americans have benefited from expanded access to telemedicine, inequities remain.
While other countries have government-backed health care, the US still relies on a mix of public and private health care insurers, which can create confusion and unequal pricing, according to Adamson.
Plus, as Adamson pointed out, “There are still many low income people that don’t have reliable internet, smartphones or computers that they can use in a telemedicine visit.”
Collectively, the survey shows that the pandemic appears to have worsened people’s views on the U.S. health care system.
“What’s changed in people’s minds is value in health care. Are we really getting a good value for every dollar we’re spending on prevention, on treatments, on hospitalization in this system?” Adamson asked.
Many of the challenges of the existing health care system were exposed under the strain of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our current system is unsustainable, especially for the poor,” Adamson said.
Nicholas Nissen, M.D., is an author, host of the “Brain Health with Dr. Nissen” podcast and a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Thursday is set to award the Medal of Honor — the nation’s highest military award for valor — to three U.S. soldiers for their service during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, including Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn Cashe, the first Black service member to be honored for heroic actions during the war on terror launched after the 9/11 attacks.
Cashe suffered fatal injuries while serving in Iraq on Oct. 17, 2005, after rescuing fellow soldiers from a burning vehicle during Operation Iraqi Freedom in the Salah Ad Din Province, according to the White House. He will be honored posthumously.
Cashe died 16 years ago at the age of 35 and his widow, Tamara Cashe, is set to accept the award on his behalf during a ceremony at the White House.
Cashe’s sister Kasinal Cashe-White recalled her brother as “very rambunctious,” a “daredevil” and “a good kid all around.”
She told ABC News in an interview on Wednesday that receiving the Medal of Honor “means everything” to the family.
“We lost our brother. He can’t be replaced. But this award means that his name his legacy will go down in history,” she said.
Cashe grew up in Oviedo, Florida, and enlisted in the U.S. Army in July 1989 after graduating from Oviedo High School. He was deployed in the 1991 Gulf War and served in Korea and Germany before being deployed to Iraq in 2005 while serving as a a platoon sergeant in the 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Benning, Georgia.
Asked how she feels about Cashe being the first Black soldier to receive the highest award for valor for service during the war on terror, Cashe-White said her brother “earned” the honor through his actions.
Biden will also posthumously honor Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Celiz, an Army Ranger who died at 32 years old during a 2018 firefight in Afghanistan, as well as Master Sgt. Earl Plumlee, a Special Forces soldier who fought off Taliban suicide bombers in Afghanistan in 2013 and is set to attend the ceremony, according to the White House.
Each of the service members demonstrated courage and gallantry by putting their own lives on the lines to aid their comrades and the actions that led them to receive the honor, a White House press release said.
When the vehicle that Cashe was commanding became engulfed in flames during an attack, his uniform caught fire and he sustained severe burns while extinguishing the flames and rescuing his fellow soldiers, according to the White House. Even after sufering injuries, he repeatedly approached the vehicle and helped four soldiers escape while being targeted by live fire.
“Despite the severe second and third degree burns covering the majority of his body, Sergeant First Class Cashe persevered through the pain to encourage his fellow Soldiers and ensure they received needed medical care,” the White House said. “When medical evacuation helicopters began to arrive, he selflessly refused evacuation until all of the other wounded Soldiers were first evacuated.”
Celiz, who died of wounds he received in combat on July 12, 2018, in Afghanistan’s Paktia Province, was attacked while leading an operation to disrupt attacks against the U.S. and allied forces and saved six live through his actions, the White House said.
His wife, Katie Celiz, told ABC News in an interview Wednesday that her husband was a “family man” who had an “amazing relationship” with their daughter.
“Chris believed in putting his men and his mission first,” she said. “Chris believed that we should always do good, whether it was the easy thing to do or not.”
During the operation he “voluntarily exposed himself to intense enemy machine gun and small arms fire” to help the U.S. and its allies reach safety and to administer aid to a wounded soldier, the White House said.
After he was hit himself, he signaled for the aircraft to depart without him.
“His selfless actions saved the life of the evacuated partnered force member and almost certainly prevented further casualties among other members of his team and the aircrew,” the White House said.
Plumlee, who spoke with ABC News on Wednesday, is also being honored for his heroic actions while serving in Afghanistan.
While responding to an explosion on the U.S. base, he fought off 10 Taliban suicide bombers dressed in Afghan National Army uniforms and came under fire several times, according to the White House. He placed himself in harms way by leaving cover to protect his base and helped render first aid to a wounded soldier, carrying him to safety.
“Without cover and with complete disregard for his own safety, he advanced on the superior enemy force engaging multiple insurgents with only his pistol,” the White House said.
ABC News’ Luis Martinez contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Two senators are taking aim at the widespread issue of fake and ineffective masks flooding the U.S. market.
A new bill announced Thursday and obtained exclusively by ABC News will grant more authority to the Food and Drug Administration to enforce and punish counterfeiters in the mask industry. It’s a bipartisan effort by Sens. Chris Murthy of Connecticut, a Democrat, and Mike Braun of Indiana, a Republican.
It is the first piece of legislation in a large pandemic response package that will be rolled out by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions in the next few weeks.
The wide-ranging bipartisan package, which the committee has been working on for months, will target various holes in the nation’s pandemic response infrastructure by improving the supply chain for medical equipment and addressing health inequities that have put minority populations at higher risk, among other measures.
The legislation announced Thursday, called the Protecting Patients from Counterfeit Medical Devices Act, comes as public health experts are urging Americans to renew their vigilance on masking in the face of omicron, a quickly-spreading COVID-19 variant of which infections have increased sevenfold in the U.S. over the last week.
New York, California, Illinois, Nevada and several other states have recently reimposed indoor mask mandates.
“In looking at early data on transmissibility of omicron from other countries, we expect to see the proportion of omicron cases here in the United States continue to grow in the coming weeks,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said at a White House briefing on Wednesday.
“What does this mean for individuals and families as we head into the winter months? A time when families may be gathering with one another over the holidays?”
“It means that it is vital for everyone to get vaccinated and boosted if they are eligible. Given the increase in transmissibility, this also means continuing to be vigilant about masking in public indoor settings, in areas of substantial or high community transmission. And as of now, this represents about 90% of all counties in the United States,” she said.
The new bill is also aimed at protecting health care workers who could face a surge of patients this winter.
Last February, the Department of Homeland Security announced it seized 10 million counterfeit 3M N95 masks, including some possibly headed for hospitals.
Since the start of the pandemic, Customs and Border Patrol has seized more than 34 million counterfeit masks, and nearly 60% of the counterfeits were seized in 2021, according to the FDA.
Earlier this year, the FDA asked for broader powers to seize and punish counterfeiters, telling Congress that the agency is currently limited to destroying certain fakes.
The current ability to enforce the rules around fraudulent PPE “is incomplete and there will be limited deterrence for the selling of counterfeit devices, especially domestically,” the FDA said in its 2022 budget request.
“The revisions proposed will help keep counterfeit devices like these out of the United States and facilitate enforcement actions against those that find their way into interstate commerce,” the FDA said.
(HONG KONG) — Four children died in Australia on Thursday when wind lifted the bouncy castle they were in about 32 feet into the air, local police said.
Nine children were in the castle at about 10 a.m. local time when it fell to the ground, Tasmania Police said in a statement. The students at Hillcrest Primary School had been celebrating the end of the school year, the statement said.
“On a day where these children were meant to be celebrating their last day at primary school, instead we are all mourning their loss,” Police Commissioner Darren Hine said.
Two girls and two boys were killed, police said. Another five children were rushed to the hospital with serious injuries, police said. The students were in 5th and 6th grade, officials said.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison called the incident “unthinkably heartbreaking.”
“Young children on a fun day out together with their families and it turns to such horrific tragedy, at this time of year, it just breaks your heart,” Morrison said.
Police said a “significant local wind event” caused the castle to lift about 10 meters, or 32 feet, off the ground.
Two helicopters and other emergency vehicles rushed to the scene in Devonport within minutes of the incident, police said.
“The loss of any child impacts significantly on our community and this tragedy is understandably distressing for us all,” Hine said. “This incident will impact all of us in different ways so it’s important that we all look after each other at this difficult time.”
Police said they’ve launched an investigation with help from WorkSafe Tasmania, the country’s workplace-safety regulator.
(HONG KONG) — Five children died in Australia on Thursday after wind lifted the bouncy castle they were in about 32 feet into the air, local police said.
Nine children were in the castle at about 10 a.m. local time when it fell to the ground, Tasmania Police said in a statement. The students at Hillcrest Primary School had been celebrating the end of the school year, the statement said.
“On a day where these children were meant to be celebrating their last day at primary school, instead we are all mourning their loss,” Police Commissioner Darren Hine said.
Two girls and two boys were killed, police said in an initial statement. Another five children with serious injuries were rushed to the hospital, where one later died, police said. Three children were still in serious condition at about 1 a.m. local time. The students were in 5th and 6th grade, officials said.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison called the incident “unthinkably heartbreaking.”
“Young children on a fun day out together with their families and it turns to such horrific tragedy, at this time of year, it just breaks your heart,” Morrison said.
Police said a “significant local wind event” caused the castle to lift about 10 meters, or 32 feet, off the ground.
Two helicopters and other emergency vehicles rushed to the scene in Devonport within minutes of the incident, police said.
“The loss of any child impacts significantly on our community and this tragedy is understandably distressing for us all,” Hine said. “This incident will impact all of us in different ways so it’s important that we all look after each other at this difficult time.”
Police said they’ve launched an investigation with help from WorkSafe Tasmania, the country’s workplace-safety regulator.
